CAMDEN — Downtown Camden will get an early start to the day, Tuesday, Jan. 25,  around 5 a.m. when construction crews will install two steel I-beams into the brick building that sits at the corner of Mechanic and Main streets.

Four Main Street – the B.F. Adams Block — the brick structure that is now sheathed in staging with a plastic cover — has been undergoing structural work for the past month, with masons working on reinforcing the 130-year-old building.

“Crews will be working with boom trucks and forklifts to place the beams and will be working in the roadway for a short time,” warned Camden Police Chief Randy Gagne. “Flaggers will be on scene to assist traffic.”

The building is under the ownership of the Dickey Family LLC, and Bill Dickey, of Lincolnville, said Jan. 24 that the steel beams are to replace the original hemlock beams that were holding up the second floor.

“It was a swinging dance floor,” he said.

Literally, the second floor was built as a dance floor and was suspended, held in place by 12-inch-round hemlock poles that ran the perimeter of the building. There were no rafters to secure it in place.

“When we were kids, we’d go up and get it bouncing, and my grandfather will yell at us,” he said.

The building was constructed in 1893, one year after the conflagration that burned much of downtown Camden. Over the centuries, the hemlock got compressed, and though other renovations were completed, it was recently, when contractors were looking at the windows, that they noticed the deterioration.

Immediately, they blocked up the whole second floor, and tenants were moved out in preparation for this structural repair work. Adam Bryant, who has worked on plenty of old historical buildings in the area, is heading up the job, said Dickey.

“It’s a way, way, way bigger job,” than what Dickey originally anticipated; hence, the staging and the plastic cover to keep the material and crews warm while they replace the bricks on the building. The bricks had to be torn off the front of the structure.

“Ten masons are in there right now, with four tenders, so that we can get this done ASAP,” he said.

Dickey anticipates the work to be finished in February or March.

After, the building will look the same.

“You won’t know the difference,” he said.